Govt forms panel to upgrade norms for state, district level economic data collection

The government has set up a 13-member committee to upgrade the norms for computation of economic data at states and districts level in the backdrop of plans to revise the base year for National Accounts or GDP calculation.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) will change the base year to 2017-18 for the calculation of GDP and IIP numbers from the current 2011-12 with an aim to capture changes in the economy.

The Committee for Sub-National Accounts will be headed by Ravindra H Dholakia, a retired professor of IIM Ahmedabad.

The panel has been asked to "review the concepts, definitions, classifications, data conventions, data sources and data requirements for preparation of State Domestic Product (SDP) and District Domestic Product (DDP) and to lay down revised guidelines".

It will also suggest measures for improving SDP and DDP in the country taking into consideration availability of data and requirements of the Centre and states/union territories.

As per the Terms of Reference of the Committee, it will also "suggest state level annual/benchmark surveys keeping in view the needs of the System of National Accounts especially in view of the next base year revision".

The notification said that the panel would submit its report within one year and may also submit interim reports, as necessary.

At a conference of central and state statistical organisations (COCSSO) earlier this year, it was suggested that same principles and concepts should be used while calculating SDP and DDP across the country to make data comparable.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), MOSOPI, revises the base year of the macroeconomic indicators, as a regular exercise, to capture structural changes in the economy and improve the quality and representativeness of the indices.

The CSO had last updated base year for GDP calculation to 2011-12 from January 2015, replacing the old series base year of 2004-05.